This invention relates to door latch devices, and more particularly to cover trims for a push bar of an exit device for a door, as well as to methods for their fabricating and installation.
A common complication of hospital care involves hospital-acquired infections from pathogenic microbes transmitted from and to hospital patients, staff and visitors via frequently touched environmental surfaces. Such surfaces, which include many types of commonly used door knobs and push plates, are recognized as reservoirs for the spread of such microbes notwithstanding hand hygienic and environmental cleaning practices for attempting to control infections.
It is well known that metallic copper surfaces are antimicrobial. See, for example, Michael G. Schmidt et al., “Sustained Reduction of Microbial Burden on Common Hospital Surfaces through Introduction of Copper”, Journal of Clinical Microbiology, v. 50, n. 7, pp. 2217-2223 (July 2012), concluding that “reducing the overall microbial burden on a continuous basis with the introduction of continuously active antimicrobial copper surfaces, as evidenced in this study and others, may provide a safer environment for hospital patients, health care workers, and visitors.”
A PowerPoint (registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation) presentation by Harold Michels (of Copper Development Association, Inc.), titled “Antimicrobial Properties of Copper Alloys and their Applications”, reports testing results on solid copper and a variety of copper alloys containing between 60% and 95% copper. These tests showed a greater than 99% continuous reduction of bacterial contamination for solid copper as well as for each of the copper alloys. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has currently issued public health registrations for antimicrobial copper to cover 479 copper alloys.
One type of frequently touched surfaces in hospital environments is the outer or touch surface of the push bar of an exit device secured to a normally latched hospital door. See for exampled, U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,280 of Godec et al., incorporated herein by reference. Although some door hardware made of copper alloys have been marketed, many push bars for door exit devices have been and are continued to be made of metals which have little or no antimicrobial properties, such as stainless steel and anodized aluminum. Consequently, a large number of such exit devices having non-antimicrobial push bars are installed in hospitals, schools and other public buildings.